Defining pathways towards African ecological futures
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Africa has experienced unprecedented growth across a range of development indices for decades. However, this growth is often at the expense of Africa’s biodiversity and ecosystems, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of people depending on the goods and services provided by nature, with broader consequences for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Encouragingly, Africa can still take a more sustainable path. Here, we synthesize the key learnings from the African Ecological Futures project. We report results from a participatory scenario planning process around four collectively-owned scenarios and narratives for the evolution of Africa’s ecological resource base over the next 50 years. These scenarios provided a lens to review pressures on the natural environment, through the drivers, pressures, state, impacts, and responses (DPSIR) framework. Based on the outcomes from each of these steps, we discuss opportunities to reorient Africa’s development trajectories towards a sustainable path. These opportunities fall under the broad categories of “effective natural resource governance”, “strategic planning capabilities”, “investment safeguards and frameworks”, and “new partnership models”. Underpinning all these opportunities are “data, management information, and decision support frameworks”. This work can help inform collaborative action by a broad set of actors with an interest in ensuring a sustainable ecological future for Africa.
Date Issued
2021-08-09
Date Acceptance
2021-07-30
Citation
Sustainability, 2021, 13 (8894)
ISSN
2071-1050
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Sustainability
Volume
13
Issue
8894
Copyright Statement
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
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Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
sustainable development
social-ecological systems
biodiversity
participatory scenario planning
governance
strategic planning
investment
decision support frameworks
green infrastructure
Africa
CLIMATE-CHANGE
WATER-RESOURCES
PROTECTED-AREA
FOOD SECURITY
CONSERVATION
IMPACTS
GOVERNANCE
URBANIZATION
CHALLENGES
PRINCIPLES
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
16
Date Publish Online
2021-08-09